China signals policy push to stabilize, revive investment

BEIJING — China has sent clear signals to stabilize and revive investment through strengthened policy support, including appropriately increasing the scale of central budget investment and continuing to leverage new policy-based financial instruments, economists said.

The tone was set at the annual Central Economic Work Conference held from Dec 10 to 11, which emphasized the need to halt the decline in investment, promote recovery and effectively stimulate private investment vitality, amid a complex external environment and declining investment returns.

China's fixed-asset investment fell 2.6 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

To bolster investment, the conference also highlighted measures such as optimizing the implementation of major national projects and the management of local government special bond usage.

"These steps will amplify the leveraging effect of government investment, further stimulate private investment and unlock domestic demand potential," said Jin Li, vice-president of the Southern University of Science and Technology.

Over the past year, China has rolled out a series of targeted policies, including an 800-billion-yuan ($113 billion) list of key projects to implement major national strategies and enhance security capacity in key areas, and 500 billion yuan in new policy-based financial tools to supplement project capital. These efforts aim to reinforce the role of government investment in driving social investment.